PM conscious of 'distress' in Joyce matter

Questions have been raised about a job given to the partner of Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce (File).

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says he and wife Lucy are acutely aware of the hurt Barnaby Joyce's marriage breakdown has caused his estranged wife and daughters.

Mr Turnbull would not be drawn on reports the deputy prime minister's new partner and former staffer was offered a posting in a colleague's office last year, saying he did not want to publicly discuss private matters.

"It is a tough and distressing episode and I am very conscious - Lucy and I are very conscious - of the hurt occasioned to Natalie and their daughters in particular," he told reporters in Canberra on Friday.

"So that's why I don't want to add or contribute to the discussion about it."

The prime minister rejected the need for Australia to follow the United States and ban ministers of parliament from sleeping with their staff.

"Relations between consenting adults is not something that normally, you would be justified in, if you like, seeking to regulate," he told reporters.